for Med Students*

*Pre-meds, Interns and Residents,
you're welcome too

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disorders in America, but also one of the most mysterious and under-diagnosed. Estimates put the rate of dyslexia in the U.S. at 10%, but because it often goes undetected, the rate may be as high as 17% of the population. Dyslexia may be detected even before a child learns to read, if she is exhibiting behaviors such as struggling to learn rhyming words or to develop letter recognition at the same rate as her peers. However, there are interventions and strategies that can be implemented at any age. With such a high incidence rate, it’s understandable that neuroscientists are searching high and low for the causes and effects of dyslexia. Although there have been incredible advances in research around learning disorders it is still unclear just how brainwaves are associated with the brain activity used for reading. Over the last two decades, researchers have used MRIs and fMRIs to monitor the activity of a dyslexic brain. They have found that in dyslexic patients, the areas typically used in reading, writing, visual recognition, or often a combination of all of these, are underdeveloped. But with intensive training or tutoring, other areas of the brain can essentially grow to compensate for these underdeveloped areas. Thus, in young students with intensive reading tutoring, we can see an improvement in their symptoms, similar to how...

Many parents are caught in two minds when it comes to the issue of a sleepover. On the one hand, they’re exciting for the children. On the other hand, the list of things that can go wrong is lengthy! Is the reward really worth the effort and the energy? If you’re babysitting children for some extra dollars, or gathering friends of your own for a sleepover, this infographic is for you. With a bit of careful planning and some ground rules, a sleepover need not be as taxing as it may often appear. Follow our guide and ensure you’ll be a Sleepover Party Survivor, this time and every time. How to Survive a Sleepover Infographic by Mattress Online. Here are more insights on sleep just for you: Polyphasic Sleep – A Boon For Modern Humans? As students, we all experience a lack of time at one point or another. There are just so many things on our plate that we must achieve in a short lifespan! Our decisions regarding priorities eventually boil down to a balancing act of the three-legged stool – education, social life, and sleep – with the last one ending up usually being cut. But what if I were to say that there is an alternative to the recommended 8 hours of sleep? Would you go for it? Looking around the world, people usually engage in monophasic sleep,...

It’s almost the middle of winter and you start feeling sick. Runny nose, cough, sore throat, breathing problems, fever, headache, and diarrhea- all these dreaded symptoms sound familiar to you? And most certainly you attribute this seasonal misery to “common cold” or the flu. Most people use the terms common cold and flu interchangeably, however, the flu is very different from common cold. While a “common cold” can be caused by more than 200 different viruses, the “flu” is an abbreviation for influenza. This respiratory virus is dreaded for its ability to spread rapidly through communities. When someone with the influenza coughs or sneezes, the influenza virus is expelled into the air, and anyone who inhales it can become infected. The virus can also be spread if someone touches a contaminated hard surface such as a door handle and then places their hand on their mouth or nose. Each year millions of people suffer from flu symptoms to varying degrees of illness. For instance, children, old people, and people with weakened immune systems are more prone to the illness. Other secondary bacterial infections may follow after the flu. This season has been a particularly tough flu season. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention (C.D.C) reports1 (as of February 17, 2018) for flu activity during the year 2017-2018, 161,129 positive tests were performed by clinical laboratories and 35,544...

Could you be suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and not even know? As many as one in every five women in the UK suffers from the condition, which affects cysts in the ovaries, high levels of male hormones and irregular periods. It’s hard enough battling an illness without many of the symptoms being so visible. Many women with the condition experience weight gain, acne and hair loss as well as depression and anxiety. Frustratingly, many treatments bring side effects and more hormonal fluctuation (such as the contraceptive pill) – creating a vicious cycle. The key things to remember about controlling PCOS, is making sure you do the following: Balance your hormones Normalise your insulin levels Reduce inflammation Balance pH levels The good news is that these actions can be controlled naturally, allowing you to be in charge of your health and wellbeing. Add natural supplements to your diet Women with PCOS need supplements – even if you follow a strict PCOS diet and lifestyle, there are gaps here and there to fill. The dilemma is how to choose the right supplements to manage PCOS. There is so much information out there it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Supplements can help your body to: Build its immune system Restore energy levels Balance hormones Promote healthy blood flow Some key contenders include: Inofolic – which combines myo-inositol (a naturally occurring substance found in...

In medicine, things are always rapidly changing, and the influx of research often leaves most of us toppling over data, articles, and new ideas to comb through. It’s important for the future healthcare professional and medical scientist to stay up-to-date on the latest advances, changes, and revolutions in biomedical science. For example, the boom of cancer immunotherapies over the past two years has overwhelmed the scientific literature and has been a hot topic of discussion in popular media outlets such as the New York Times. While these articles are often easier to read, highlighting anecdotal stories among interviews with important physicians and scientists involved in the research, they often fail to include primary research and the details of mechanism behind the science. Consequently, reading these articles featured in the media are intellectually interesting, yet lack the “meat” of the primary research. Instead of blasting a search on PubMed to find the latest news in research, I’ve compiled a list of the most relevant, highly esteemed, and trustworthy journals that are necessary in the arsenal of the future doctor and medical researcher. Most of them have highlights sections, editorials, and reviews as well to keep you informed on relevant topics without becoming tangled up in the depths of the original research article itself (though sometimes that is worth it and necessary). This is not a comprehensive list and is influenced...

It’s official: reading before bed has been proven to promote better sleep. Unlike many modern ways of consuming info such as phones and TV, it doesn’t stimulate the brain into staying awake. Discover the benefits of taking a book to bed, and how this can fit in with a good sleep routine below. 6 Minutes to Slumber Infographic by Mattress Online. The Health Scout recounts why sleep matters for pre-med students and medical professionals: A mentor once told me, “Whenever you say ‘yes’ to something, you’re saying ‘no’ to something else.” Sometimes saying ‘yes’ to sleep means my life appears pretty boring from the outside. For example, when I was a 4th year med student on my surgery sub-internship, I woke up at 4:00am every day and usually didn’t get home until 7pm or later. When I got home, I ate dinner while I talked to my husband, showered, and then got in bed around 8:00pm. This was also in July, so I was actually in bed before the sun set every night. This sounds like a really pathetic existence, but I swear I was happy. Giving up some time with my husband after work in favor of getting enough sleep was worth it because I wasn’t exhausted on my days off. I actually had energy to spend time with him. And getting enough sleep helped me perform at my...

The whole reason that e-cigarettes were invented was to provide a less harmful alternative to smoking – one which – unlike traditional NRT’s (Patches, gum etc) – actually feels like smoking, and gives you a genuinely satisfying nicotine hit. Something that is still actually pleasurable, but without the known problems associated with smoking. So naturally, ever since their conception there has been a great deal of debate over just how safe they really are. With well over a decade since the first generation of the humble e-cig hit the market we’ve seen a lot of good and a lot of bad research into vaping, vapor and the devices used to create it. In the following sections we’d like to try and sift the fact from fiction and provide you with a brief overview of the evidence that will answer is vaping safer than smoking. 1. The Basic Premise Since the 1950’s it has been increasingly well documented that it is the combustion of tobacco and the resultant smoke and tar inhaled, that cause the diseases associated with smoking. These include, lung cancer, COPD, cardiovascular disease, bronchitis, emphysema, and so on. One of the founding fathers of tobacco cessation, Professor Michael Russell, wrote: “People smoke for nicotine, but they die from the tar” There are over 5000 chemicals contained in cigarette smoke (source), over 70 of which are known carcinogens. Some...